Me: And, how would you like your soufflé to be served? Dans le ramequin ? Sur assiette ? Avec ou sans coulis ? (In the ramekin? On a plate? With or without sauce?)P:Je peux avoir les 3 ? (Can I have the 3?)Me: Gourmand ! (Greedy!)

The Best Soufflé Therapy

If there is one dish that is ephemeral, which shape is hard to maintain, it has to be un soufflé.

Know this: Soufflé in French comes from the verb “souffler“, which means to blow. Should I then be surprised? No! But yet, how cruel of him, le soufflé, to rise so tall and proud once it has reached the ultimate cooking point, and yet fall slowly or abruptly as soon as he is taken away from the warm nest created by the oven. He goes up to form a beautiful peak, but falls down as if he had received a shot in the head. Pouf! And when Monsieur le soufflé collapses, he takes me with him: I too feel deflated.

But tell me. There must be a trick to keep him the same. What do I need to do to be able to eat him before he goes down?

I know!

So I love to make and eat soufflés, but I can also be frustrated with them. Les soufflés are such whimsical things, don’t you agree? They have a mind of their own. I think however, that I have found a remedy to my problem.

To avoid the feeling of deflation involved with this king in our kitchens, I decided to give him a good chill to make him cold. I decided to freeze him! Le soufflé gets stuck. Cannot go down and disappear before I notice it. Il est figé ! Immobile. “Stay! I got you. You cannot go anywhere!” This time, he has no choice but to remain tall and proud. But wait! Too warm in here? It just looks as if he were going to melt now. What is wrong with you, soufflé?

I remembered seeing this recipe a while ago in an old copy of the French cooking magazine Saveur, at a time when eating cold iced foods was not appealing at all. But these days in the Northern hemisphere at least, as we all know, things are slightly different. Cold desserts are actually immensely attractive. Even for people like me who usually get fussy (the waiter thinking “she is such a pain!”) when she gets too many ice cubes in her glass (“Can I have water without ice, please?”) I thought to give it a try and absolutely loved it. I changed the recipe slightly, mainly due to my grocery limitations since it is practically impossible — or maybe I am looking in the wrong places — to find fromage blanc in the US. Only one Vermont company provides one type that I tried and actually dislike a lot. Of course, I should not be surprised since it is almost fat free (not my cup of tea), nothing like the nice smoothness of what fromage blanc should really be like. Sooooo…I substituted the required fromage blanc with a lovely plain Swiss yogurt I bought and the recipe worked great.

Served plainServi nature

In a few words, if you like lime and the touch of crunchiness provided by poppyseeds, you will love this dessert. I thought of trying different ways to serve it. Casual and eaten plain, or more elegant with marinated strawberries and coulis. I also tried with different fruit sorbet I had made (watermelon and Cantaloupe melon). My favorite remains the strawberry/coulis version. A little more work, but really worth it.

Me: And would you like more coulis on your soufflé?P:Oui s’il te plaît ! Un peu plus.(Yes, please, a little more.)

In a pot, mix together the egg yolks, half of the cream, the yogurt, half of the lime juice, the cornstarch and the poppyseeds.

Bring to a first boil on low heat while stirring constantly, and remove right away.

Soak the gelatin sheets in cold water. Squeeze them to remove the excess water and add them to the cream, with the rest of the lime juice and the zest of 1 lime. Mix well

Beat the egg whites firm. Add 1 Tbsp sugar when you start and just before they start to get firm, add the rest progressively. The cream should be firm and shiny.

Gently fold this light preparation in the lime cream.

Whip the remaining heavy cream in chantilly and add it to the lime preparation.

Take ramekins and place parchment paper around the edges sticking out inside (or use liners). Divide the cream between the molds and place in the freezer for about 4 hours.

To unmold, run the blade of a sharp knife between the mold and the liner (You can also dip the ramekins in warm water for 30s). Flip over on plates and serve according to your mood, with or without berries.

As usual, your recipes are delicious, the photographs mouth-watering, and the accompanying story led to an almost dangerous incident between my tea and my keyboard 🙂 I’ve put off trying a souffle as I’ve heard of their disappointing deflating, but will have to try this cold solution!

Béatrice Peltre is a food writer, stylist and photographer working out of her home studio in Boston.
She is a regular contributor to the Boston Globe Food Section, and her work has appeared in many publications
such as Saveur, Food and Wine, Whole Living, Fine Cooking, the Wall Street Journal, NPR, the Huffington Post,
the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, Edible Boston, Living France, the New York Times Diner’s Journal,
and in many other international magazines.